USE AND MANAGEMENT OF SPRINGS AND WELLS IN SEMI-ARID AREAS
Linden Vincent 1
Classifying the hydrological nature of groundwater sources is difficult.
It can be much easier to identify water sources by the technology by which they are mobilised, which can also have different forms of water rights
and management institutions.
1 Wageningen University, The Netherlands
NETHERLANDS
SPRINGS
Example from northern Yemen Republic (seasonal annual rainfall 600mm or less) Terraced mountainous terrain, volcanic and metamorphic rocks
DUGWELLS AND BOREWELLS
Example: droughtprone Andhra Pradesh, India (seasonal annual rainfall 750 mm or less), hardrock aquifers (crystalline and sedimentary formations)
Norms to help development and planning
‘seepage point’ - very small discharges under 0.001 l/s accessed by springbox
springs – discharges 0.001-10 l/s ponded in cisterns for irrigation and domestic use.
'Groundwater streams' - springs supporting larger, perennial flows of water (over 10 l/s), left to flow naturally. These supplied domestic supply and irrigation offtakes under local access arrangements
Norms (for wells in hardrocks) Annual draft Ha.m
Mhot well (animal lift) 0.35
Dugwell with pumpset 1988 0.84 1993 0.65 Borewell 1.30
1 l/s irrigates 1 ha of irrigated dry crops in the rainy season and 0.7 ha in the dry season
Access rights and institutions
Three types of spring:
- natural flow out of the ground, which was free for all to use;
- springs opened up on private land;
- springs opened up on unowned land, which conferred private ownership but with certain communal obligations.
Rights adjudication:
Holder of allocation knowledge (wakil) Judge – local sheikhs or state representative?
Access rights and institutions
- Ownership of land where can drill
- Legal acts on groundwater use unendorsed
Different state agencies -resource monitoring -borewell development - local development planning
Village governance - village councils
- some borewell and watershed organisations Problem context and actions
Misappropriation, physical violence and destruction, interest in new adjudication on how spring sources can be developed
Participatory consultation with allocation representatives with users and officials
Use of rights classification given above to understand access and potential for disputes
Use of low norms for drinking water supply to improve access overall
Problem context and actions
Depletion and helplessness, interest in new knowledge and technology giving new management options
Participatory hydrological monitoring
Local rules on cropping intensity and crop choice
Focus on the techological assembly:
new controls through redesign of electricity supply
DISCLAIMER: Poster draft prepared by IWRM.org on behalf of the author(s). Any inconsistencies between author(s) input materials and the poster is unintentional.
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